


just your run-of-the-mill deal with the devil

by black_hat_with_bells



Category: Heroes - Fandom, Vampire Diaries
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-21
Updated: 2011-05-21
Packaged: 2017-10-19 15:57:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,243
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/202611
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/black_hat_with_bells/pseuds/black_hat_with_bells
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Claire goes to Elijah to strike a deal.</p>
            </blockquote>





	just your run-of-the-mill deal with the devil

Elijah would agree that it was an odd power exchange.

The world ended, only not quite. The human population was decimated but only just. The vampire survived,as his kind, his lineage, often did and were still hungry.

The only solution was to move in and make haste--while the sunshines, so to speak. His brother was still out there, and Elijah wanted to make a move to draw him out. He had compelled the self-proclaimed leaders and was running things quite smoothly, with a vampire in as many houses as possible.

Still, humans were dying, and it was dangerous to drink from someone too diseased. The wildlife was also having difficulty surviving for very long. The rate of accidental turnings of humans was also astoundingly ridiculous. Elijah cursed that he couldn't be everywhere at once contrary to his reputation. To be fair, sometimes the virus was too determined for vampire blood to stay its touch of death.

Then this girl appeared, who came back to life and was hunting his kind. It wasn't hard to capture her.

The reason for that was she wanted to be captured.

"No ring brings you back to life," Elijah observed. She stood in front of him without blinking. She was blonde and small and trying to be not at all afraid (she was: he could sense it but something).

"No, I was just born that way."

"...a pop culture reference for the end of the world," Elijah said, "doesn't quite carry the same impressive weight. No one remembers any songs anymore, do they?"

"You do."

"I'm a very special vampire," Elijah said, "like you are a very special girl. What should I do with you?"

"How about you feed from me and ensure your survival? Just a suggestion."

This one liked to talk back, with such fire.

"Do you drink vervain?" he asked.

She made a face and shook her head, sincerely confused.

"Then why do you offer yourself to me with such abandon? Even most immortals care about their own self-preservation more than that."

"I've come here to make a deal," Claire said, tilting her head, as if what she had for him was so impossibly good that he couldn't deny her a thing.

"I'm willing to hear you," was all he offered back.

"I can heal myself, but I can heal others. Other living people," she clarified. "Meanwhile you start helping people actually survive. I know exactly how much someone can survive, and the human race could survive if you let them. Help them even. I've seen first hand what a vampire can do, and humans instead of just surviving can thrive."

She paused and looked directly at him.

"And then maybe you can survive."

Elijah couldn't help it: he laughed. As a wordsmith, he had enjoyed how she had approached her point.

"You've taken a great risk in revealing yourself to us. What made you believe we wouldn't just feed on you and throw the rest of the humans...how do you say...under the bus?"

"Or better yet, just feed on me and leave them alone entirely?"

He lifted one shoulder as a shrug.

There was a pause.

"Even I wouldn't feed a whole pack of vampires," she said, honestly and sounded...terribly disappointed about the fact."I can't make you stop. But in this case, if you do use me, that means that you'll make sure my blood is distributed to everyone."

This was unbelievable. Elijah stood and then moved, right in front of her, and brushed her hair out of her eyes in a gentle motion.

"You've talked a great deal, but as a diplomat, you have made a very vital error.

"Tell me."

"You've only talked about your own benefits."

"You--missed the whole survival thing," Claire said. He lowered his hands to her elbows and felt a tension there, felt the hair on her arms stand up. She was unnerved by him but she kept her gaze up.

"For my kind. I was referring to my benefits."

"Still survival."

He pushed her against the wall, his eyes darkening.

"Wow," she whispered, watching the change.

"Just wow," he mocked.

"I've seen weirder. No offense."

He put his hand on her neck.

"What are you going to do? Rip my heart out?" she asked.

He chuckled. "That would be a waste of a perfectly good heart."

"A good heart," she whispered, looking up at him for a long time. "...I guess."

"You should now ask me something, Claire."

"What do you want."

"I have an enemy that I haven't managed to...divest myself of. How could you help me there?"

"There are others," she said.

"Like you."

"Yes but different. They can do everything from turn invisible to fly to go nuclear. They can even grow crops and heal animals..."

"That's quite the variety of talents."

She had his attention.

Why haven't they acted against him yet? Where were they?

"Tell me where they'd be. Who they are, how they are hiding."

"I don't remember."

He raised an eyebrow at her sincere tone. "Is that true, Claire?" he asked, compelling her.

"One of them can do that too. I asked them too. Took away all their faces and names. I wrote it down on my palm and everything," she said, her eyes very green and so heavy for a small girl like her. She was--at this very second--almost as alone as he was.

By choice.

"Ah." There was something more here, but he didn't know the questions to ask. Not yet. He released her and after a moment, motioned for her to take a seat. "Do you drink anything?" he asked. "Wine," he clarified.

"Sure," she said. "Sure."

Elijah watched her, his eyes lingering on her knees, how her hands were steady on her glass.

"You can't die. That's why you asked to go in another's place."

The act had a sort of honor to it.

"To risk being bitten forever," he finished. "A purgatory."

"I wonder what that feels like."

"I thought you had been killed by us several times."

"Yeah. I've lost count of how many times," she said. "And I wonder what their teeth in my neck feels like."

In his many years, he had never felt a sense of unease or perhaps awe. He'd settle for respect.

"If I treat you well--and the humans well--when the time comes, do you think these others would cease to be my enemies?"

"They aren't your enemy," she said, finally sounding weary. "Not yet. The world has changed us, and now we all have to make the world change for us. Does it have to be how it was before, so limited and cruel?"

"There is a dislike of my kind among humans."

"That was the old days. We need each other, and like I said, you can learn to live with anything."

...There was potential here.

Elijah leaned forward. "I accept these terms. I give you my word."

He finally heard her heart speed up, a sign of life. "Thank you..."

"Elijah. I shall give you your choice of a room here. You shall join me tonight to discuss the distribution of your blood among the survivors. Perhaps some freedom for the humans. And while we talk, we shall have...dinner," he said, weilding his words like a sword and aiming for her heart.

And at the vampire, Claire smiled as brightly as the sun.


End file.
